[kepler-dev] How are LSID's allocated?

[Matthew Jones]

Hi Tony,

LSID's were chosen over UUIDs for three main reasons: 1) they have a 
formal resolution protocol for obtaining the resource from the ID alone, 
2) despite this ability to be resolved, they still separate identity 
from location, and  3) they are Internet URIs, and so can be used in 
various places that UUIDs can not, such as the namespace for an XML 
document.

In theory, any valid LSID could be used, and so they can be safely 
assigned by distributed providers.  In practice, all Kepler actors so 
far have been assigned to the kepler-project.org authority. I certainly 
hope there is no code that requires this, but I can't be sure without 
trying it.  Chad Berkley implemented the system and may be able to 
clarify whether or not a different authority can be used.  He also can 
clarify how the LSIDs within the kepler-project.org authority are 
issued.  At one point this was done simply by tracking the last used 
identifiers in the file kepler/src/actors/README -- but I am not sure if 
this is still the case.  Chad can probably clarify.

Matt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew B. Jones
Director of Informatics Research and Development
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                Ph: 541-888-2581 ext. 287
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Tony O'Hagan wrote:
> The basic developer tutorial at ...
>   http://www.kepler-project.org/Wiki.jsp?page=KeplerDevelopersTutorial
> 
> ... does not provide the complete answer as it's apparent that some 
> Actors use different actor and kar IDs.  
> 
> So ... how are these LSIDs assigned.  Is this documented somewhere?
> 
> I'm rather surprised that UUIDs are not used as they would ensure that 
> Development teams can safely independently generate their own IDs.
> I'm curious as to the reason for not using them.  Any insights?
> 
> Thanks,
> Tony O'Hagan
> 
> DART Project, University of Queensland.
> 
> 
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